We’re not saying it’s a slow news day, but all of Hollywood appears to have downed tools and buggered off to see Barack Obama’s inauguration. Which, frankly, has left us scrambling around for tidbits.

Thank God, then, for Hellboy II star and all-round nice guy, Doug Jones, who has just used his Facebook status update to inform us of his participation in a biopic of the French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, entitled Serge Gainsbourgh: Vie Heroique (A Heroic Life).

Jones won’t reveal who he’s playing in the French-language movie, but it won’t be Gainsbourg; that honour goes to Eric Elmosnino, who will chart Gainsbourg’s life from his upbringing in World War II to his time spent courting controversy from the 50s and 60s onwards.

Jones, who starts shooting today, will be the only American actor in the cast and, par for the course for the actor, his role will involve prosthetics, created by the same team who worked with Jones on Pan’s Labyrinth, the Spanish FX specialists, DDT Efectos Especiales.

“I know what you're thinking ... "a prosthetic make-up in a bio pic?"” says Jones on his website, thedougjonesexperience. “You're just going to need to trust me here. All will be revealed in due time. This movie is different than anything I've done, and I am tickled pink to be working in the French cinema with all its history and artistic license.”

To read more from Jones about the movie and about his involvement, click here to go visit his website. As for Doug, we wish him the best of luck with the project, because we're nice like that.